Hi ... !
It appears that some altcoins have emerged as major phenomena on the 'battlefield' of cryptoland in 2017. The dominance of Bitcoin was challenged, especially in last june.
In january 2017, Bitcoin utterly dominated the world of cryptocurrencies with a percentage of total market cap around 85%, followed by Ethereum with a meager 5%. However, things started to change rapidly when Spring came, with the market cap percentage of Ethereum rising to 20% in a matter of weeks. In May, Ripple (XRP) exploded too in popularity and managed briefly to take more than 25% of the existing market cap.
In June, it seemed Ethereum would soon replace Bitcoin as the leading coin in cryptoland with a percentage rising above 30%, while that of Bitcoin dropped below 40% ... !
Since then, Bitcoin has managed to gain some ground again but Ripple and especially Ethereum remain more than significant. Would this be a sign of things to come ... ? Will Bitcoin eventually be surpassed by Ethereum ... ? Time will tell ... !
Seeya!